Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he was angered when then-President Donald Trump released a transcript of the phone call that ultimately led to the latter’s first impeachment.
During an interview with Axios‘s Jonathan Swan that aired on Sunday, Zelensky said he thinks Trump was “very wrong” to publish the transcript of their private phone call, adding that he “never” would’ve done the same.
“There was one unpleasant thing. Until now, I have not spoken about this. The publishing of our conversation, I think this is very wrong, and it was not Ukraine who made it public. I would never let that happen,” Zelensky said. “I think no matter what we talked about, this conversation was the first serious conversation between two presidents, between strategic partners, and in any case, neither of us had the right to make such things public.”
Zelensky also said he was “a little bit” angry with Trump’s actions.
In the controversial phone call, which took place on July 25, 2019, Trump repeatedly urged Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden and his son, Hunter. The younger Biden had business ties to Ukraine, which Trump alleged represented openness to corruption during Joe Biden’s stature as vice president.
Shortly after the phone call between Trump and Zelensky, a U.S. intelligence official accused Trump of corruption in a whistleblower complaint centered around the conversation, prompting House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to begin what would ultimately result in the then-president’s first impeachment in the House. The complaint was deemed “serious” and “urgent” by intelligence community Inspector General Michael Atkinson, but acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire declined to release details of the allegations to Congress after consulting with the Justice Department.
Under mounting pressure from those accusing him of wrongdoing, the then-president released a transcript of the conversation on Sept. 24 of that year, which Trump claimed exonerated him of any wrongdoing.
In the phone call, Trump encouraged Zelensky to work with Rudy Giuliani, the president’s personal attorney, in an effort to investigate Hunter Biden’s working relationship with his employer, Burisma, a Ukrainian gas company.
In 2018, Biden bragged that he threatened to withhold $1 billion in U.S. loan guarantees if Ukraine didn’t fire top prosecutor Viktor Shokin. Giuliani alleged for months that Biden wanted Shokin fired because he undertook an investigation into Ukrainian oligarch Mykola Zlochevsky, the owner of Burisma Holdings, which employed Biden’s son as a board member starting in 2014, reportedly paying him $50,000 a month.
Trump was ultimately impeached in December 2019 on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of justice. He was subsequently acquitted in the GOP-controlled Senate.
The former president is awaiting a second impeachment trial in the Senate, which is scheduled to begin on Feb. 9. The House impeached Trump on a count of inciting an insurrection during the Jan. 6 Capitol Hill siege. Sixty-seven senators would need to vote in order to convict Trump, thereby prohibiting him from holding federal office again.
